Mondo Mint iPod Speaker System Review

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Both unique and high performing, this system rocks.

By Gerry Block

iPod listening stations are fast becoming a dime a dozen. Though the lower-end bracket is pretty much saturated, there is a fair degree of competition among systems priced above the $300 barrier. At this high-end, listening stations need to deliver in both style and audio performance. New in this scene is the Mondo Mint, a $350 bookshelf system that delivers both audiophile quality audio response, stylish aesthetics, and unique features that will make the technophiles happy.

The Mondo Mint system is housed throughout in iPod-reminiscent piano white plastic. A base station handles amplification, iPod docking, and general system control. A pair of bookshelf-sized speakers more akin to proper hi-fi systems than the average iPod listening station drive the sound via 4-inch aluminum cone woofers and 1-inch neodymium textile Peerless tweeters. Each of the speakers is rated for 70-Watts, and the system can also support whatever speakers of your own you care to throw at it thanks to its ability to work for 4, 6, and 8-ohm configurations.

A rather high degree of quality engineering is apparent throughout the Mondo Mint. The included speaker wires aren't the cheap crap common to other systems, including far more expensive speaker sets. Thick and sturdy, the wires, and the connections to both speakers and amplifier, are robust. The wires are also conveniently long at just less than 5-feet long, which allows for a fair degree of connivance in placement for good stereo separation. The Mint's base station has both an iPod dock centrally located top and center as well as both a mini-jack port for non-Apple mp3 players and a USB port for hooking the system up to a PC, which is cool.

A unique feature the Mondo Mint sports is a separate, wireless iPod dock that will transmit playing tunes to the base station. It's a cool addition to the package in that you can thus position the base station and speakers in one room and set the wireless dock in another. The wireless dock can control volume whether an iPod is docked in it or not, and obviously if an iPod is seated in the dock you can then control album and track selection. Wireless range is promoted by Mondo at 100-feet, and in our tests a 75-foot stretch with a few walls in the way still allowed for static and lag free music playback. The base station requires a wall outlet for power, which does limit its placement a little bit, but in most situations we don't see a problem with that.

The audio quality of the Mondo Mint was first class among iPod listening stations that we've tested. Thanks to the size of the bookshelf speakers bass is really solid, far more similar to proper hi-fi systems than cute, but tinny, iPod listening stations. Though there's no separate subwoofer, and no EQ for dialing in the levels, the Mondo Mint's music reproduction was solid no matter what genre we were rocking. Our usual favorite test tracks like Tool's 10,000 Days, and Peeping Tom's Mojo were excellently reproduced through both highs and bassy lows.

We even moved on to some classic rap like Easy E, Snoop, and Dre's best cuts, and were happily surprised to find the Mondo Mint had the range to make the songs sound good, as opposed to other listening stations with lacking bass that make rap sound absolutely anemic. Throughout all our music testing the Mondo Mint produced extremely well balanced, room-filling sound with which we could find no complaints. Even at high volume the system was free of distortion and qualified itself as quite a bit more powerful than the standard one-piece listening station.

The Mondo Mint delivered in both audio reproduction and style. While its cost ($350) places it in the high end among listening stations, it's extremely high quality manufacturing, components, and music playing capabilities put other offerings in its bracket to shame. Were we in the market for a listening station at this price bracket, the Mondo Mint would be our first choice.